The Great Wave: The Era of Radical Disruption and the Rise o ...

Michiko Kakutani

• 14 maart 2024
• 9780008706524

Samenvatting:

An urgent examination of the great wave of change breaking over today’s world – from the Pulitzer Prize-winning critic and New York Times bestselling author of The Death of Truth

‘A profoundly inspiring and prophetic perspective on the contemporary world’ Ai Weiwei

In the twenty-first century, a wave of political, cultural and technological change has capsized our old certainties and assumptions, creating both opportunity and danger.

As people lose their faith in old institutions and elites, radical voices at the margins and the grassroots are disrupting the status quo. This is the time of the outsider – the protester, the populist, the hacker. Some of these outsiders have sown chaos, like Donald Trump, and others have provided inspirational leadership, like Volodymyr Zelensky. But all have grasped this precarious moment to make something new.

Writing with a critic’s incisive understanding of cultural trends, Michiko Kakutani outlines the consequences of these new asymmetries of power, and looks back to similar hinge moments in history, from the waning of the Middle Ages to the aftermath of the Second World War, to find a way forward.

For there is, Kakutani argues, always the promise of transformation in times of turmoil. We can surrender to the waters, give in to the gathering chaos, or we can use the wave’s momentum to propel us into a more stable and sustainable future.

Kakutani's The Great Wave is a compelling exploration of modern ideologies and the social classes they impact. Through a series of thought-provoking essays, the author examines the economic disparity in our 21st-century democracy, offering a unique perspective on the business and economic landscape.

For fans of Anne Applebaum (Red Famine), Peter Frankopan (The First Crusade), Salman Rushdie (Knife), Lee Mcintyre (On Disinformation), and Matthew D'Ancona (Identity, Ignorance, Innovation).